Alps look ok!

They're closer to impingement ovens than convection ovens.

Convection ovens (or "fan forced ovens" in some countries) use a fan to gently and evenly circulate the hot air, whereas impingement ovens and air fryers use higher velocity fans to blow the heat directly onto the food.

Things don't need to be revolutionary to be life changing. Could I have used the convection oven for this one slice of pizza? Sure. Would I ever? Hell no.

But yeah, microwaves really are neat. We're going to fling these electrons around in these very specific magnetic fields and out pops light you can't see.

A more efficient and quicker small convection oven you can easily buy for 30 bucks and pop in a cupboard when you're not using it.

Microwaves are a prime example that if something's cool doesn't mean it's good for it's job.

Btw, the part of microwave that turns electricity into microwave is called magnetron. Freaking magnetron. I didn't know real inventions could have names as cool as that.

Best I can give you is corporate pittance for menial labour.

I got rid of my home deep fryer for health reasons. It is dangerously easy, cheap, and quick to make quality fries...

When talking about air fryers, my husband once rightly pointed out that air fryers are just countertop convection ovens.

I walked over to him, held my index finger up to his lips, and whispered to him, "shhh. Air fryer. AIR FRYER." 🤣

Yes. And I think it’s important to understand exactly what a convection oven actually is.

At its most basic, it’s an oven with a heating element and a fan that circulates hot air around the cooking chamber. That’s it. The circulating air improves heat transfer and helps food cook and brown more evenly.

Now, manufacturers have increasingly started calling a particular implementation of convection an “air fryer” and charging a premium for it, as though they’ve invented an entirely new cooking technology. They haven’t. Convection cooking has been around for decades.

An air fryer is essentially a compact, highly optimized convection oven: hot air is circulated rapidly around the food, usually with a basket or perforated tray that allows that air to contact more of the food's surface.

So when you’re shopping for a range and you see one advertised as having an “Air Fry” function, don’t automatically assume you’re getting some revolutionary new appliance. In many cases, you’re paying extra for a marketing term applied to a convection system that has existed for generations.

Not it’s not and I’m tired of the nerds screeching.

A Ferrari is very different from a Honda.

Air friers have a much lower total volume while moving a much higher volume of air. The effect is far more pronounced and cook times are halved.

I think its the small volume that makes it worth it (faster to heat up, efficient) so I can see why people would buy one.

I personally don't have one because I don't exactly value my time. I throw my food in the cold oven and set it to whatever and check back later. I don't have any motivation what so ever to care about pre heating or having my food ready 10 minutes earlier.

Most countries have ovens

We probably did in old Mesopotamia with clay ovens or something.

It's just an oven optimised for airflow.

Even fan-forced, a normal oven recirculates the same air around, which carries moisture evaporated from whatever you're cooking.

Air Fryer is just a much smaller oven, with a similar sized element and a bigger fan, that also has an exhaust, so moisture-laden air is expelled from the unit and the air hitting the food is always hot and dry.

But all-in-all it's just a type of oven and you can absolutely use one as a regular little oven or if you crack the door a little and turn the heat up a bit, you can use regular fan-forced oven as an 'air fryer'

Turn dial to set temperature

Turn another dial to set time